Flanagan-Cornell prepares to be in the pink Tuesday

Luke Smucker

Saturday

Sep 29, 2018 at 2:16 PM

Flanagan-Cornell High School students on the volleyball team are excited. On Oct. 2, the team will be competing against Ridgeview High School in a Volley For the Cure event to recognize those impacted by breast cancer and raise money for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Research Foundation. This year marks the 10th annual iteration for the event, which started with former coach Kari Harms. It is schedule to run from 4 to 9 p.m. Varsity team captain Rachel Harrison has fond memories of watching the varsity team playing in pink uniforms when she was a freshman. “I couldn’t wait to have an opportunity to wear the pink jerseys,” she said. “It’s kind of cool to think that this event has been a tradition at our high school for the past decade.” Although this year’s fundraiser shares many similarities with past events, head coach Joe Estes said there will be a special 50/50 raffle in honor of the 10th anniversary this year. The high school also received an early donation from Delhei’s Place, a restaurant in town. “They donated 10 percent of their profits to our Volley for The Cure event,” Harrison said. “They knew this was coming up and they wanted to help us out. As far as we know, that’s the first time a restaurant has offered to do something like that for us, so that was really great.” Other businesses have donated items for gift baskets to the event, which are sold via silent auction to help the team raise money. The varsity captains said the silent auction is of particular interest to them because often these baskets sell for more than the cost of the items to bring money to the foundation. To give community members a reminder about the upcoming event and an idea of what they could win at the silent auction, both the Flanagan State Bank and Flanagan Public Library have allowed the high school to display some of its baskets within their businesses. “It’s really cool to see so many people showing their support for our event,” Harrison said. “It feels good to know we’re helping to raise money four the foundation and promoting breast cancer awareness. We hope everyone will come out and support us.” The varsity team captains said the game against Ridgeview is important, not just for their record, but for the foundation. “We try to play hard and bring our best every single game,” co-captain Alexis Howell said. “But I think for this game it is particularly important not just to focus on winning the game for us, but to make it an exciting and competitive game for everyone in attendance. On that night, the community isn’t just supporting us for volleyball, they’re also supporting our cause.” Thus far, Estes said support for this event throughout both the Flanagan and Cornell communities has been humbling. “It’s an honor for our team to be able to organize this display of unity and see so much support,” he said. “Ridgeview purchased a bunch of shirts for their team to wear for the night. So, they are getting involved, too.” Of all the special pink apparel that the varsity team will get to wear for the game, the hot pink jerseys are still the favorite. “We like them because they are different, it’s a new look and I think everyone looks good in pink,” co-captain McKenna Roth said. “This year we also have the pink socks to go with it. One of our teammates bought socks for the entire team. They are all different patterns, but they all have the pink ribbon on them.” Estes said the team doesn’t have a set goal of how much they are hoping to collect, they just want to help out the foundation as much as possible. “It’s inspiring to see all the participation that everyone puts into making this event a success,” Howell said.